John Foster and Bob Carty have an excellent retrospective on the Chilean coup d'etat of Sept. 11, 1973 in the Embassy Magazine.

by John W. Foster and Bob Carty, Embassy, September 11 2013The battle to open Canada’s portals to refugees from Chile led to a renewed Canadian citizen interest in foreign policy, and reforms in refugee policy. The Canadian response to the Chilean coup d'etat of Sept. 11, 1973, was a contradictory mix of official resistance, personal courage and citizen activism energized by Canadian churches with a persistence that outpaced government refusals. From an emergency meeting at the Ecumenical Forum in Toronto on Sept. 12, a coalition of church folk, the Latin American Working Group, trade unions and students organized to demand that the Trudeau government refuse to recognize the military junta and open our doors to refugees from Chile. Soon, an Inter-Church Committee on Chile was organized.